Behind the new challenges of Ecuadorian indie music festivals

In 2015, the massive attendance of the Ecuadorian public to four local festivals such as El Carpazo, Quitofest, El Festivalito and Al Sur del Cielo demonstrated the exponential and surprising growth of a new "alternative" community. What is the current challenge of these events to sustain the local independent music scene? Organizers talk about it.

Coachella, known as one of the largest and most influential music festivals in the world, became a showcase for rich young people and douchebags more interested in partying than in music. This description is established by the cultural journalist Marlow Stern in his articles for the Daily Beats. According to him, It seems that the "alternative music" festivals took a conceptual turn and became the most active allies in the music industry as they present mainstream artists instead of alternative bands.

In our country, despite the difficulty that festival promoters experience due to excessively high taxes and the presence of free concerts, some organizers have managed to reinvent the concept of their events and have included a series of activities that align to what Coachella, Lollapalooza, and other mega-festivals promote. According to local organizers, it is essential to make some improvements to maintain the validity and attraction of their gigs. However, they keep and protect their statement: they will keep on hosting local alternative bands as the main attraction because festivals are one of the leading platforms to support and spread Ecuadorian alternative music.

PIONEER STAGES

Quitofest 2015, official video/ Direction and edition: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz

In the nineties, the political position within alternative music was stronger. Bands and festivals had the objective of opening and establishing spaces to present underground music. Under this argument, Coachella was born in 1993 when Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, decided to organize a free festival to boycott Ticketmaster, the ticket company accused of monopolizing the music stages of Southern California. Later, the promoter Paul Tollett retook the idea and mounted a new edition in 1999.

In Ecuador, the organization of festivals also started from the same struggle. Al Sur del Cielo, the first rock music festival in Ecuador, grew based on a series of spontaneous recitals organized between 1972 and 1987. "There was a political action. First, to put rock music in action; and second, to stage and present the local musical projects of that time," says Pablo Rodríguez, journalist and part of the organization of this festival.

Al Sur del Cielo festival. Circa 1990.

Another critical platform for the development of Ecuadorian alternative music is Quitofest. After 15 editions, it is the most important alternative music festival in Ecuador and one of the biggest in the region. The event was born in 2003 as a platform to exhibit non-extreme alternative music.

The crew of the Quitofest talks about the creation of the festival.

Both festivals were able to open and set up the necessary spaces to highlight two growing scenes. The excellent quality of the bands, the constancy in the organization and the free admission of both events were vital pieces to establish the bases of an active and alternative community.

The problem of gratuity

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For 15 years, Quitofest has brought together audiences from different social strata and ages. Quitofest, 2015. Fotos: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz

ith the goal of generating meeting points for an alternative audience who was looking for consuming new Ecuadorian music, charging for a ticket was not the priority. For this reason, Quitofest and Al Sur del Cielo maintain that policy until today. "The Quitofest was created for everyone´s access, including the low-income audience. Maybe for them, it represents the only chance they have to see a national or international band, and if we charge for the entrance, the public will decrease. I strongly believe that providing them with entertainment will have a great impact in their lives", says Álvaro Ruiz, director of Fundación Música Joven (Quitofest).

IMAGE: For 15 years, Quitofest has brought together audiences from different social strata and ages. Quitofest, 2015. Photos: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz.

The contribution of these festivals when bringing people together and establishing a community of alternative music fans is undeniable. However, the gratuity has been harmful to local bands. Since 2014, Pancho Feraud started producing two events in Guayaquil, the second biggest city of Ecuador: "Mañana es Lunes" and "El Festivalito." Although he considers that free concerts are necessary, charging for a ticket has become a fundamental need.

"Mañana es Lunes" are small Sunday concerts organized where the admission cost is based on a voluntary contribution. The public pays for what they think the concert was worth. Also, El Festivalito, a biannual outdoor festival, demands a ticket with a standardized price. "If a band plays in a free festival, probably nobody would go to see it again if weeks later the same band organize its own a concert. In Ecuador, independent musicians life from their gigs. Then it is not fair. We must charge," says Feraud.

In Quito, El Carpazo is the festival that allies with Ferauds’s philosophy. This year, the third edition was organized, and the high attendance of the public determined a new phenomenon within local alternative music. "I think we as a culture are moving forward because the audience has accepted from no paying to paying a little for a ticket. We as organizers have to expend to The National Association of Music Authors (SAYCE) a considerable fee on every sold ticket. For example, in taxes, they take away from us around a 25% of the total sold admissions. Also, private companies are not yet willing to invest in independent culture. The real challenge of the music scene is for the public to contribute," says José Fabara, organizer of El Carpazo.

The new community

El Carpazo festival official video. 

In 2001, Goldenvoice, the promoter company that organized Coachella, got absorbed by Anschutz Entertainment Group. From that moment, the festival stopped being a rite of alternative fans and became the fashion event. The same happened with Lollapalooza Argentina and Estereo Picnic Music Festival of Colombia. Both celebrations began to present in their headlines some of the most mainstream bands and musicians of the industry to attract a young community with considerable acquisitive power.

Gabriel García, Marketing Director of Estereo Picnic, details that a new type of audience is consuming indie music. "Now, the festivals in the United States are going through a phenomenon: they are filling up their events with people who just want to party. If you go to Coachella, there are 12 thousand people canned in the electronic music tent. Of these, 4 thousand do not come out, they take two pills and go long regardless of whether the DJ puts the same songs over and over again. What matters to them is to party with friends. The music is just an excuse."

A new generation of fans is actively participating the Ecuadorian independent music festival circuit. Foto: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz. 

García and Fabara agree that part of this phenomenon is due to the new methods of musical consumption through web platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, blogs and online radios. "Before we bought records, we listened to the entire 12 songs in them and that made us want to see those bands live. Now, we do not listen to the whole album, but we put together a playlist. We do not want to go and listen to a band that I only know two of the 15 songs that it plays. We want to see a DJ that plays all the hits," says Garcia, based on his own experience in organizing the Colombian festival.

Locally, although the phenomenon is not exact, during 2015, there was a "non-alternative" public that flirted and actively participated in alternative festivals. In the case of Quitofest, integrating audiences was a fruitful experiment. The 2015 headline presented a combination of pop, rock and hardcore alternative bands. "It was incredible to mix everything, from the under to the most pop bands. It was like refreshing the idea of what we want to do with our festival from now on. The evidence was on how after the presentation of Los Pericos (a pop-reggae Argentinian band), public stayed and enjoyed bands such as Atari Teenage Riot and A.N.I.M.A.L. (hardcore and heavy metal)," says Ruiz.

Fabara also believes that the formation of this new raising community of fans occurred thanks to the competitive music products that local bands have created over the past few years. "Thinking about the market, Ecuadorian alternative bands can compete along with other international music projects. This improvement helps because local music has boosted its level, the audience realizes that, and new people want to consume it. For example, in the last edition of El Carpazo, the bands that most called the attention of the audience were the locals. We realized that we had a crowded festival thanks to them. It's a perfect scenario in our history because this did not happen in the early 2000s when the independent projects were isolated and experimental. " One of the brightest pieces of evidence of this phenomenon is a tweet posted by Jorge Drexler, one of the most popular and respectable musicians in Latin America and Europe. The musician referred to Nicola Cruz, the Ecuadorian DJ that has shacked the electronic international music panorama with The Andes Step, a new genre that mixes electronic beats with ancestral Latin-American music.  

"The best Latin American sound I've heard in a long time comes from Ecuador. Do you know Nicola Cruz? It's amazing!"

The importance of festivals

Before, the primary objective of cultural managers and festivals was to show and expose a local alternative culture. Now, the principal challenge is to persuade and keep hooked an active and demanding community of new fans in a constant state of mutation.

Applying 'The Coachella Formula,' of bringing a top DJ or mainstream band, is unacceptable and unattainable for local organizers. First, that action would contradict their identity as an independent festival that showcases alternative music. Second, it would represent an astronomical production investment that should be offset by high-ticket prices. Apparently and based on past experiences, all organizers agree that this is something that the local community is not willing to accept.

Average of assistance: El Festivalito (500 people), El Carpazo (2500), Al Sur del Cielo (15000), and Quitofest (30000). 

According to Feraud, the possible solution relies on how the festival organizers protect its audience. "Today, the demands of the musicians over the stage are greater because they are aware that a top show will impact the audience and it will help to maintain and protect the fans. Something fundamental for a festival organization is the sound equipment and the technical team. In these two elements is where 50% of the total investment of the event goes. The sound is a highly valuable factor and helps to achieve the main goal of audience protection as you are providing them a high-quality event".

For José Fabara, the decisive element is the music content offered by the festivals. "Thinking about the local scene and the music, we must achieve excellent line-ups. For this, we must take into account, above all, local groups as we offer them an exhibition platform, an excellent logistic, and a good economic and technical treatment. This way, they can show themselves in the best way possible. Our challenge as a festival is to make people happy and to make them feel that the gig is providing them an excellent experience."

Metalheads running under the water. QF Cuenca festival, 2014. Foto: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz

For paid festivals and their organizers, the last two positions are applicable as they have found the proper methods to sustain their events. But what will happen to the free admission festivals that depend on public funds? Quitofest and Al Sur del Cielo will remain free of charge, and both organizations agree that the solution for their cases is the institutionalization. They firmly believe the National Secretary of Culture should include their productions in its agenda, just as the Municipality of Bogotá did with 'Rock Al Parque,' the most representative independent festival in Colombia and the region. Otherwise, year after year, the production of both events is a complete uncertainty.

Ruiz and Rodríguez agree that public institutions, in more than 20 years of work, still fail and haven't understood the importance of both festivals. "With the Secretary of Culture, we have been competing for public funds since we were born. Every year we need to beg and fight for a few dollars," says Ruiz. "This year, the Ministry of Culture took away our funds because they found the price of sound equipment exaggerated. They claimed that we had raised the price of the sound equipment of five years ago," said Rodriguez. Even though the existence of these complications, they stand still and will continue to look for ways to finance their projects. They cannot leave a job and the scenarios that have developed the local music scene for more than 25 years.

Festival promoters: Álvaro Ruiz (Quitofest), José Fabara (El Carpazo), Pancho Feraud (El festivalito/Mañana es Lunes) y Pablo Rodriguez (Al Sur del Cielo). 

Local music festivals have an enormous responsibility, as they are the only exhibition and outreach platforms that alternative bands have for a mass live audience. Also, they are places where people of different socio-economical backgrounds could access to independent and high-quality entertainment.

In a historic moment where the portal of "free admission festivals" is evanescent, organizers must entertain, engage, and motivate the new audience to sustain local festivals. Although it’s a real challenge, offering high-quality productions and including contemporary and well-curated music content is transcendental to achieve this goal. However, experimenting live alternative music in Ecuador is still an accessible pleasure, and producers shouldn't shift it into a privilege, as the world's "alternative" festivals already did.

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- Text & photos: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz.
- Videos: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz, Radio COCOA y El Carpazo
- Graphics & designs: Marcos Echeverría Ortiz
- Photos "Al Sur del Cielo": Pablo Contreras (archive personal)